KI TAVO THIRD READING

Moses encourages the Jewish people to uphold their covenant with G-d that was forged at the Giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.

In return for keeping the covenant, G-d would hold them especially dear, above His love for all other people.

What it means to be “set apart”

Moses told the Jewish people

“G-d has set you apart today, to be His

treasured people.”

G-d has “set us apart” from evil and wrongdoing. Our Divine nature and true inner self render us totally above any involvement with evil, and therefore, inherently incapable of wrongdoing.
Therefore, when we do something that distances us from G-d, we can always return to Him. When we are motivated to return to G-d out of passionate love for Him, not only can we forsake negative behavior and habits at any instant (thereby defying the natural forces of inertia and habituation); we can even convert past deliberate wrongdoings into motivations for positive behavior.

Devarim Rabbah – Sefaria

When a fool comes into the study hall and sees everyone busy learning, he asks, “How does a person start learning Torah?” They tell him: “First he learns to read. Then he studies the Five Books of Moses, then the Prophets, then the rest of the written Torah, then he goes on to the Oral Torah, the Talmud, the laws and the aggada.” The fool says, “When will I ever learn all this?” and he runs away. But the wise man studies a chapter a day until he completes the entire Torah. (Midrash Rabba Devarim 8:3)